Fire Guts Home, Kills Man, Son

CHARLES CITY (COUNTY) — Fire gutted a mobile home in the Mount Zion-Rustic section of the county and left a local man and his 2- year-old son dead late Sunday.

Fire and Sheriff's departments are still investigating the fire in which Carl Smith Sr., 25, and his son, Carl Jr., 2, died. The fire started shortly after 11 p.m. in their mobile home off Route 623, said Fire Chief William Lewis. The cause has not been determined.

The trailer was in flames when firefighters arrived about 11:54 p.m., Lewis said. The fire was under control 20 minutes later. The bodies of Smith, a supervisor at a Richmond roofing contractor, and his son were removed about 1:30 a.m., Lewis said.

Lisa Spruell, Smith's sister-in-law, who lives next door several yards away, said that about 11:10 p.m., she heard loud pops she thought were coming from Smith's truck that often backfires when starting. After hearing two more pops, Spruell looked out the window and saw a fog of smoke coming from the back of the mobile home, but no flames.

After she ran to the scene, she heard windows pop and injured her hand as she banged on the trailer to awaken Smith and his son, she said, pointing to her fully bandaged hand. After hearing no cries for help from the trailer, Spruell ran back to her home and called the Charles City Fire Department. When she returned, the trailer was completely in flames and the roof of the trailer was off, Spruell said.

"It was like the top blew right off," Lisa Spruell said.

Spruell said she had first seen smoke coming from the den of the two-bedroom trailer, where there was a television set, video cassette recorder and stereo system in the den. Spruell said her mother heard smoke alarms located in both ends of the 60-foot trailer sounding off.

About 10:50 p.m., Smith's brother had left the home where Smith was playing cards with his son. It was a favorite pastime of Carl Jr., Spruell said. Smith's wife, Lori, was not home when the fire occurred, Spruell said.

At 3 p.m. Monday, smoke was still rising from the charred remains of the two-bedroom mobile home. Several feet from the home was a toy basketball hoop set broken in two.

Monday was to be Carl Jr.'s first day in La Petite Academy Inc. in James City, said Spruell, who often was baby sitter for the Smiths.

"He was real bright," Spruell said. "He could answer the phone and tell you the whole conversation."

Sheriff James Bowman said the fire is under investigation but appears to be accidental. The bodies were sent to the state medical examiner's office, where the cause of death and positive identication will be determined, Bowman said.